Merchandise Categories and Shared Options

On This Page

• Categories
• Where to Find It
• Create a Category
• Deleting a Category
• Shared Variant Options
• Where to Find It
• Create a Shared Variant Option
• Shared Modifier Options
• Where to Find It
• Create a Shared Modifier Option
• Changing or Deleting a Shared Option
• Permissions
• Validation and Errors
• Related

A large store needs clear aisles, and items that share sizes or personalization questions should not need separate setup each time. Rhythm gives you two reusable tools for your merchandise catalog: categories, which organize items in your store, and shared options, which let many items reuse the same version or personalization question. This article explains how to set up both. To use them on an item, see Merchandise Items: Create, Edit, and Find.

Categories

Where to Find It

Go to Orders & Inventory › Setup › Merchandise › Categories. The list is headed Manage Merchandise Categories.

Create a Category

1. Go to Orders & Inventory › Setup › Merchandise › Categories.
2. Press Create Merchandise Category.
3. Enter a Name:. Rhythm suggests the ID: from the name, and you can change it while the category is new.
4. Optionally choose a Default Product Sort Order: to control how shoppers first see this category's items. Leave it as Use store default to use the store's own setting.
5. Press Save Changes.

Result

Merchandise Category '[name]' saved successfully. The category is now available in the item form's Categories: picker and in the store's catalog structure.

Setting	Options	Default	Effect
Default Product Sort Order:	Sort by Featured, Sort by Newest Items First, two price orders, two alphabetical orders	Blank (store default)	Controls how the store sorts this category's items when a shopper has not chosen another sort.
Status:	Active / Inactive	Active	Rhythm allows duplicate category names, so two categories can have the same name.

Tip

Every merchandise item belongs to a category. If your store charges a credit card processing fee for merchandise, that fee appears only when the store includes the categories for the purchased items. If a merchandise credit card fee is not showing up as expected, check that the store includes the right categories.

Tip

Stores cannot turn shipping off individually today. If you need shipping available in some stores but not others, create separate merchandise categories for shippable and non-shippable items. Then put the right products in each category and configure each store to show only the merchandise categories it should offer.

If you assign categories to products through an import instead of the item form, send category_ids as a real array, such as ["APPAREL", "BOOKS"], not as a quoted string with embedded delimiters. A value formatted the wrong way can fail to import correctly.

Deleting a Category

You cannot delete a category while any item is still in it. Remove the category from every item first. Marking a category inactive does not remove it from items that already use it, and it does not stop the category from appearing in the item form's category picker.

Shared Variant Options

A shared variant option is a version question, such as "Sizes," with choices like XS, S, M, L, and XL. You define it once, then many items can use it instead of repeating the same sizes on each item. When you change the shared option later, every item that uses it shows the change without being saved again.

Where to Find It

Go to Orders & Inventory › Setup › Merchandise › Shared Variant Options.

Create a Shared Variant Option

1. Go to Orders & Inventory › Setup › Merchandise › Shared Variant Options.
2. Press Create Shared Variant Option.
3. Enter a Name:. Rhythm suggests the ID: from the name.
4. Choose a Type: — Dropdown, Radio Buttons, Rectangle List, or Swatch.
5. Add each version's value under Values:. You can save a dropdown-type option with no values, but buyers will have nothing to choose.
6. Optionally set a Default Value:. Rhythm does not check whether it matches one of the values you entered.
7. Press Save Changes.

Shared Modifier Options

A shared modifier option is a personalization question, such as "Engraving Text," that you define once and reuse. An item can also have its own one-off personalization question instead of using a shared modifier option. Shared options are helpful when the same question belongs on many items and you do not want to retype it each time.

Where to Find It

Go to Orders & Inventory › Setup › Merchandise › Shared Modifier Options.

Create a Shared Modifier Option

1. Go to Orders & Inventory › Setup › Merchandise › Shared Modifier Options.
2. Press Create Shared Modifier Option.
3. Enter a Name:. Rhythm suggests the ID: from the name.
4. Choose a Type: — Text, Dropdown, Checkbox, or Date. (Multiple Choice also exists, but only for a shared option; an item cannot define its own ad hoc multiple-choice question.)
5. For Text, optionally tick Restrict the number of characters and set a maximum length.
6. For Dropdown or Multiple Choice, add each choice under Values.
7. Optionally set a Default Value:.
8. Press Save Changes.

Warning

Be careful when you change a shared option's Type: after items are already using it, or when you change a Text option's character limit. If you change the type away from Text while the character restriction is still ticked, the maximum-length field can stay required but become hidden. That blocks your save until you switch the type back to Text, untick the restriction, and change the type again.

Changing or Deleting a Shared Option

You can change any field on a shared option at any time; no rule stops the save. The change appears on every item using that shared option the next time its page is shown. Rhythm does not update the variants or the price and weight rules already stored on items that use the option. If you remove or rename a value that an item's variant or rule already depends on, that item can end up naming a value the shared option no longer offers.

You cannot delete a shared option while any item still uses it. Marking it inactive does not remove it from the item form's picker, and it does not stop buyers from seeing it on items that already use it. Once an item uses the option, the inactive setting does not affect that item.

Permissions

You need access to Orders & Inventory Setup to reach these setup screens.

Validation and Errors

What you see	Why	What to do
Unable to delete Merchandise Category	An item still names this category	Remove it from every item first
Unable to delete Shared Variant Option or Unable to delete Shared Modifier Option	An item still uses this shared option	Remove it from every item that uses it first
The save is refused for a missing name or identifier	Name: or ID: is empty	Fill in both
A required field you cannot see is blocking Save Changes	You changed a shared modifier option's Type: away from Text while its character restriction was ticked	Switch the type back to Text, untick the restriction, then change the type again

Related

• Merchandise Items: Create, Edit, and Find: placing an item into categories and picking its shared options.
• Inventory Tracking Settings for Merchandise: how variants created from a shared variant option interact with stock tracking.
• Coupons: restricting a coupon to one or more categories.